The present disclosure relates to bagging machine systems and methods for bagging organic and other materials such as silage, compost, grain, sawdust, dirt, sand, and other materials.
Agricultural feed bagging machines have been employed for several years to pack or bag silage or the like into elongated plastic bags. In recent years, the bagging machines have also been used to pack or bag compost material and grain into the elongated plastic bags. Two of the earliest bagging machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,687,061 and 4,046,068, the complete disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. In these bagging machines, silage or the like is supplied to the forward or intake end of the bagging machine and is fed to a rotor or other compression means, which conveys the silage into a tunnel on which the bag is positioned so that the bag is filled. The bagging machine moves forward at a controlled rate leaving the packed bag behind. The packing density of the material packed in the bag is determined and controlled by a number of factors including the rate at which the bagging machine moves forward and the rate at which the silage material is packed into the bag.
Over the past several years, bagging machines and their associated systems, methods, and components have been developed to accommodate a variety of needs. For example, bagging machines and their tunnels have dramatically increased in size to accommodate end-users' desire to use larger bags. Tunnels for use with the bagging machines are available in a variety of widths, some of which are sufficiently large to accommodate bags having a 12-foot diameter. The large width of the tunnel presents a problem when the bagging machine is being transported on public roads, which normally limit those widths to approximately 102 to 118 inches (2.5 to 3 meters) in the United States and European countries. Such width restrictions greatly reduce the mobility of machines with larger tunnels. The large width of the tunnel also presents a problem when the machines and tunnels are being shipped, especially overseas.
Another drawback with many conventional bagging machines is that they can only be used with bags of a single width. That is, conventional bagging machines can be used with bags of varying length, sometimes up to several hundred feet long. However, a bagging machine and associated tunnel typically can only be used with bags of a single width, such as 8 feet, 10 feet, 12 feet, 14 feet, or a predetermined width therebetween.
Bagging machines, whether used to bag feed, compost, or other material, can be used in a variety of circumstances and to serve multiple end-users. A particular farm may need to bag different types of silage in different size bags. The same farmer may also want to compost material in yet another size bag. Using conventional bagging technology, a separate machine, or at least separate tunnels, would be required for each such use, the cost of which would be prohibitive.
Another drawback with many conventional bagging machines is that the rotor and associated mechanical components used to in association with the rotor are often too wide to fall within preferred width range mentioned above. Many such packing machines have employed relatively wide rotors in order to produce a sufficient amount of material processed by the rotor to efficiently fill large bags.
Another drawback associated with many conventional bagging machines is that they require interruption when packing the material into a bag in order to exchange an empty unloading truck with an unloading truck full of material. During the exchange, the bagging machine must either be fully or partially turned off or permitted to run with a gap in the material being sent to the rotor. Turning the bagging machine fully or partially off and then on again risks unnecessary wear to controls an systems associated with the operation of the bagging machine. Turning the bagging machine fully or partially off and then on again also interrupts productivity of the bagging machine, thus packing less material in a given time period as a result of the interruption. Running the bagging machine when it is not processing material through the rotor also causes decreased productivity, requires unnecessary fuel consumption, produces wear upon moving parts of the system, and emits unnecessary and damaging pollution into the environment.
Another drawback associated with many conventional bagging machines is that the rotor is required to rotate at a fixed speed. However, not all materials need be processed at the same rate. For example, materials that are finer, short in fiber length, dryer, or flow better through a rotor are capable of being processed through the rotor at a more efficient and increased rotational speed while materials that are high in moister or longer in fiber length would cause potential damage to the bagging machine if processed at the same rapid speed. Such high moisture or long fiber materials would be processed more efficiently at a slower rotational speed. Conventional systems do not provide variable rotational speeds for the rotor under the same amount of torque from an engine.
Therefore, a need exists for systems and methods that address one or more of the issues discussed above.